The classic small ship Azores, currently on charter to British cruise line Cruise & Maritime Voyages, was seized in Lisbon on Tuesday 7th April, after an unpaid debt by the ship owners, Portuscale Cruises.

Crystal Cruises has been sold to Genting Hong Kong, by their current ownersNippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK). The acquisition which is worth $550 million, will also see a new cruise ship built for the luxury cruise brand.

Mark Tamis has been named the new senior vice president, hotel operations for Royal Caribbean International. He will be responsible for overseeing Royal Caribbean's hotel services, food, beverage, entertainment and private destinations. He will report directly to Royal Caribbean CEO and President Michael Bayley.

Bookings for the most luxurious ship ever built have surpassed expectations by Regent Seven Seas. Cruises on board the 56,000 ton vessel opened to Seven Seas Society loyalty members on January 19th and already the company has reported record-breaking bookings for Seven Seas Explorer.

Norwegian Cruise Lines, President and CEO, Kevin Sheehan has taken the decision to the leave the company. During his time at the company, Sheehan, has helped transform Norwegian Cruise Lines, into one of the most successful and recognised brands in the industry.

The first charter flight under a partnership between Air France KLM and MSC Cruises took off from Paris (Charles de Gaulle) this week carrying 432 MSC guests to the Dominican Republic for a week-long Caribbean cruise.

Virgin Cruises has officially been formed and its head office will be based in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale area. After securing vital financial funding by Bain Capital, the new cruise line will construct two brand new cruise ships, with an estimated launch date of 2019.

Virgin's iconic Founder, Sir Richard Branson, said:

We plan to shake up the cruise industry and deliver a holiday that customers will absolutely love. They’ll be sailing on the latest ships offering great quality, a real sense of fun, and many exciting activities all delivered with the famed Virgin service.

Now that Virgin Cruises has the 'green light' to start company operations, the group has appointed Tom McAlpin to be the cruise lines CEO, overseeing the management of the business. Tom was previously the president of Disney Cruise Line's and joined as part of the founding management team. His previous insights will prove vital for Virgin Cruises as the company develops its brand.

Tom McAlpin commented:

Cruise guests deserve something better and different to what is being offered today, and Virgin Cruises is committed to creating breathtaking experiences for them and a new generation of guests. Opportunities like this do not come often, so I am very excited to lead this business and introduce the Virgin brand to the cruise industry, as it has always put customers at the heart of what it does.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd has announced that they will launch a new joint-venture cruise line with Ctrip.com.

SkySea Cruises will serve the growing Chinese cruise market, with operations starting in the middle of 2015. The cruise line will initially operate with one cruise ship, but there will be potential for more to be added.

Richard Fain, chairman and chief executive officer of Royal Caribbean, commented on the venture:

We look forward to working with Ctrip, a Chinese travel leader, to build a national cruise line for China.

SkySea Cruises represents an important strategic milestone in our expansion efforts in the Chinese market.

We are fortunate to have Orlando join our team, bringing with him a career's worth of global experience leading high-performance teams that helped innovate some of the most respected and well-known companies in the world.

I am confident that Orlando’s leadership will enable Holland America Line to build on its uncompromising Signature of Excellence commitment to deliver a superior guest experience that will continue generating rave reviews from our guests, travel professionals and the industry alike.

Ashford will oversee Holland America Line’s sales and marketing, revenue management, deployment and itinerary planning, public relations, hotel operations and strategy. He will report to Holland America Group CEO Kruse and will be part of the Group’s executive leadership team alongside brand leaders Jan Swartz, president of Princess Cruises; Richard Meadows, president of Seabourn and president of Cunard North America; and Ann Sherry AO, chief executive officer, Carnival Australia. Ashford will relocate to the Holland America Line headquarters office in Seattle.

Prior to his role at Mercer, Ashford served as senior vice president, chief human resources and communications officer of Mercer's parent company, Marsh & McLennan Companies. He also has held several other leadership roles during the course of his career, including group director of human resources for 90 countries in Eurasia and Africa for the Coca-Cola Company and vice president Corporate Center human resources and cultural transformation. Previously he was vice president of global human resources strategy and organizational development for Motorola, Inc. where he helped modernize the human resources function for the global tech leader.

Orlando Ashford is eager to start his role as president of Holland America Line. In a statement he said:

Holland America Line is a remarkable and highly respected company that delivers exceptional experiences and indelible memories of joy and adventure to their guests.

It’s a noble mission, and I am eager to get to work with this talented group of service-minded employees to unleash new ideas while building on the success of this thriving global business.

Virgin Cruises, a new venture by Sir Richard Branson, has gained financial backing by a huge investor.

Cruise Capital reported on the new venture, back in February 2014. Now, Sky News has revealed that Bain Capital, the private equity group behind major companies, such as Toys R' Us, will work with Virgin.

Bain will not be the only external shareholder. At least one Middle East sovereign wealth fund and a number of family offices and high net worth individuals are also believed to be participating, according to private equity sources.

Virgin Cruises hopes to build 2 ships, with a launch date of 2019, based in Miami, competing against main industry players, such as Carnival Corporation and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

The small ship operator offers guests an authentic Greek experience and the new rebrand will help promote this ethos.

Celestyal Cruises gives cruises the opportunity to visit legendary archeological sites, experience music by traditional Greek musicians and dancers, as well as to enjoy delicious Greek cuisine and wine.

The Louis Cristal will be renamed Celestyal Crystal with a new livery to match.

Louis Olympia, a former Royal Caribbean ship, will be named Celestyal Olympia.

All social media pages have been changed to reflect the new corporate identity.

The 'It's Royal Caribbean Time' campaign is designed to raise awareness about what cruise ships offer to Australian audiences. The TV campaign comes after recent research found that customers down under are most concerned about price and are not influenced by what cruise line they sail with.

Royal Caribbean Commercial Director Sean Treacy told Mumbrella the research showed people did not look at brand at all.

What was really surprising, and frankly a little damaging to our egos, was that people who are new to cruising can’t tell one cruise brand from another...They are merely comparing one big white ship with another and they find it difficult to tell the difference between the likes of us, Princess Cruises and most surprising, P&O.

Royal Caribbean took the research as a "wake up call" to how they were marketing in the Australia market and as a result will be increasing its brand marketing to raise awareness.

Princess Cruises' small ship, Ocean Princess is to be sold when a third new vessel enters service in 2017.

Carnival Corporation president and CEO Arnold Donald revealed the decision while delivering third quarter results.

Donald said: "In keeping with our company's strategy of measured capacity growth, this will be our only new build in 2017.

"And we also have plans underway to sell the smaller Ocean Princess."

It is not known at this stage who the ship will be sold to.

Princess Cruises will be launching a sister ship to the Royal and Regal Princess in 2017.

Ocean Princess has been operating with Princess Cruises for 14 years, previously named Tahitian Princess. It was built in 1999, by the now defunct Renaissance Cruises, which had a fleet of 8 identical ships. Multiple cruise lines including; Azamara Club Cruises, P&O and Oceania Cruises all have identical ships to the Ocean Princess.

Azamara Club Cruises revealed they need extra capacity to fill demand, so it would seem possible for the cruise line to purchase Ocean Princess, the identical sister to their current fleet of 2, Azamara Journey and Quest, instead of an expensive new build.

Sir Richard Branson, best known for creating the Virgin brand which includes planes, trains, gyms, and even space travel, has drawn up plans for a new cruise line, likely to be called 'Virgin Cruises.'

The cruise line will aim to compete with other industry giants, such as Carnival Corporation and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.

The project is still at an early stage, but Virgin executives and advisers have already held detailed talks about how to finance the project.

They are trying to raise an estimated $1bn to acquire the first fleet of vessels. They are also looking to raise a further $700m of equity by selling stakes in the cruise line to outside investors.

Sir Richard and Josh Bayliss, chief executive of Virgin Management, are understood to believe the global cruises sector possesses many of the same characteristics which have led Virgin to build a significant presence in sectors such as aviation, rail and mobile telecoms.

"Cruises is a classic Virgin market, dominated by two or three players and where the product needs to be refreshed," an insider told Sky News.

Virgin Cruises is expected to be headquartered in the US, which is the world's biggest cruise market.